Reflecting Love's Charms (Bellingwood Book 14) (20 page)

Polly sat back. She wasn't expecting that. All of the baby girl stuff was gone. Stephanie was quite an actress. The thought flashed through her mind that she should start up a community theater with her friends as actresses. She pushed it away.

"You did very well," Lenore said. "You even had me believing you were cowed by him."

"How stupid is he?" Stephanie asked. "Does he really think I'm going to show up and turn Kayla over to him and play his little games again?" She turned on Jeff this time. "I'm asking a question. How stupid is this man?"

"Pretty stupid," Jeff said. "And for that, I'm grateful."

Aaron stepped in front of Stephanie, stopping her. "Me too. Now, you have an hour before meeting him. We'll have our people in place long before either of you get there."

"What happened with Rebecca?" Henry asked.

"He slapped her and then she must have kicked him, because he yowled." Aaron said. "She might be a little worse for wear, but she sounds very much like Polly in a bad situation. I recognized that voice yelling. And she said that she was okay."

Tears fell from Henry's eyes and he took Polly's hands again. "She's okay."

"I know," she said, barely able to believe it.

"She's okay?" Hayden asked from the dining room. Stu stepped aside so the kids could all join them.

Polly looked at Aaron, letting him take the lead. "Yes she is. She's mad, but she said she was fine. He wouldn't let her talk to Stephanie, but that didn't stop her."

"Is she coming home tonight?" Andrew asked.

"We hope so." Aaron beckoned to Kayla. "Come here, honey."

"What's wrong?"

He shook his head. "Nothing. Stand here beside Ms. Hart."

Polly watched Lenore Hart transform herself to match Kayla's height. She slumped her shoulders, just like Kayla and she looked at Kayla's arms, then matched how the girl held her hands. "I can do this," Lenore said. "Can I borrow some of your clothes?"

"What are you doing?" Kayla asked.

"I'm going to be you. We'll put a hoodie on me, a pair of your pants and a sweatshirt. Maybe I can borrow your glasses, too?"

Polly turned to Henry, who was as shocked as she was by what they were seeing.

"Are your suitcases in the car downstairs?" Jeff asked.

"I'll go with you. It's so packed, you'll never find anything," Stephanie said. She looked back at Lenore. "I can't believe you're doing this."

The woman smiled. "I do it a lot." She turned toward Polly. "Years and years of acting while I got those psych degrees. My thesis was about transformation of personality in theatrical presentations. The world's a stage, you know."

Jeff preceded Stephanie back into the living room, bearing three heavy suitcases. "I assume they'll be staying with one of us tonight," he said.

"Come with me, Stephanie," Lenore said. "Help me turn into a facsimile of your sister."

They went into the kids’ bathroom and Polly stood up. "Where are they going to meet him?" she asked.

"No," Aaron said, shaking his head. "I'm not telling you. This isn't yours to fix tonight."

Polly took his arm and led him back into the kitchen.

He stopped and said, "I'm not telling you."

"I know," she whispered. "But I have to ask you. Do you believe that Stephanie's father was responsible for that girl's death earlier this week?"

He dropped his head and shook it in the negative. "No. I believe it's something else entirely."

She wasn't expecting that answer. "What does that mean?"

"It means I don't want to get into it with you tonight. We need to focus on bringing Rebecca home."

"What do you mean you don't want to get into it with me? Why would you get into anything with me about that?"

"Not tonight, Polly."

"You're making me nervous, Aaron. Does her death have something to do with me?"

"I hope not." He turned to go back out into the living room.

Polly caught his arm. "You know I'm going to worry about this. I won't sleep because of what you just said."

"Then I didn't say anything. What I am certain of is that Stephanie's father never met that girl and had nothing to do with her death. It's a completely separate issue. Can't you just take that as good news?"

"It is good news. I haven't wanted to voice my fears about that out loud, because I didn't want it to be a possibility. If he was willing to kill her, he'd be willing to kill Rebecca."

"Well, that's not a concern. The only thing we're concerned with tonight is keeping all of these girls safe."

"And Lenore Hart can do that?"

"She's highly trained."

"Where did she come from? I've never seen her in your office before."

"She came in from Ohio. Part of a specialized team there."

Polly smiled. "Kind of like Hawaii Five-O?"

"She's just a specialist with the state police. But she's highly motivated to get this man back. We're lucky to have her working with us."

"It always surprises me that you don't worry about mixing it up with other law enforcement agencies. It always seems like such a battle on television shows."

"I've been around a long time, Polly. If we do things all by ourselves, we might get all of the accolades, but we also take all of the heat when something goes wrong. If we work as a team, we get more information, more cooperation and more good ideas. I don't care how many wins I have in my personal column, but I do care that our people are kept safe."

"Thanks for bringing her in, then," Polly said.

"Like I had a choice," Aaron replied with a laugh. "Let's go see how they've done."

They went back into the living room and Polly sat down by Henry, then pulled him close. "He won't tell me where they're going. Said we need to stay here," she whispered.

He patted her knee. "Makes sense. Can you believe this?"

"No. Not at all." Polly looked up at Aaron, trying to process what he'd inadvertently said to her about the dead woman. How would it have anything to do with her?

Stephanie came out from the bathroom first and stopped at the door, waiting for Lenore to emerge.

"Wow," Andrew said. "She looks like a kid."

Lenore came out with the hoodie pulled forward over her face. Polly didn't know what they'd added to her wardrobe to flesh out her body since Kayla was heavier than Lenore. She swung her body with a lilt that mimicked Kayla's and managed to hold herself tight like Kayla did, as if she were afraid someone might startle her at any minute. Kayla's glasses helped to finish the face, but Lenore had also managed to purse her lips just as Kayla usually did when she was concentrating. The transformation was remarkable.

"Is that me?" Kayla asked.

Andrew looked back and forth between the two. "It really looks like you from a distance. In the dark nobody could tell the difference. That's so cool."

Checking his phone, Aaron stepped forward. "My people are in place. It's time to go."

Stephanie hugged Jeff, then came over to Henry and Polly. "We'll get her back. I promise. I'm so sorry that this happened."

"No need to apologize, Stephanie," Henry said. "Thank you for doing this, though."

"How can I not?"

Aaron took her arm and led her back through the house to the back steps, the garage and her car.

More waiting, but at least something was finally being done.

CHAPTER TWENTY

Roaming around aimlessly was making everyone else nervous, so Polly finally went out to the kitchen. She fumbled around in the cupboards, looking for anything to do.

"Can I help?" Hayden asked from behind her.

She jumped.

"Sorry," he said. "I'm so sorry. I thought you heard me."

"It's okay." She gave him a shaky smile. "I'm not paying attention." Polly put the can of black beans back on the shelf. "I just need something to do."

Hayden slipped past her and took eggs and butter out of the refrigerator, then said, "What about simple chocolate chip? You can never have too many of those around."

She rubbed her hand across his back. "That sounds good. You warm up the butter and I'll measure out the sugars." Polly reached in front of him and turned the oven on.

In minutes the mixer spun as it creamed the butter and sugar together. Polly leaned against the peninsula. She closed her eyes and tried to settle the jittery feeling that began when Stephanie agreed to meet her father.

Hayden coughed and she opened her eyes. "Do you want to do this?" he asked, holding the measuring cup filled with flour.

"Yeah. Thanks." She gently shook it in and laughed at a memory of Rebecca sending flour everywhere when she poured it right over the beaters. "Bring her home," Polly whispered.

Hayden took the empty measuring cup from her and replaced it with the opened bag of chocolate chips which she poured in, sighing as the mixer beat against them, the familiar sound comforting.

"Do you realize that we all know she's going to be fine because you're here?" he asked, taking her cookie sheets out of the cupboard.

"What do you mean?"

"If you were out looking for her, I'd be worried about you finding a body, but since you’re allowing everyone else to handle this, the rest of us know that she's alive and perfectly fine." He stepped in front of her, turned the mixer off, and tipped the head back.

Polly looked at him, her mouth curving into a slow smile. "As much as I hate to say that out loud, it's true, you know." She lowered her voice. "But I always worry that there is just going to be that one time when it doesn't work."

"Don't even think that way. It's your thing. We count on it." He opened a drawer and handed her the scoop she used. "You know that some of us do actually rely on that, don't you?"

"What do you mean?" Polly took a spoon out and reached into the bowl for a bite of cookie mix. There was really nothing better.

"As long as we have our eyes on you, everybody we know and love is safe."

She rapped his arm with the back of her spoon. "Stop that."

"Okay, I'm exaggerating. But you smiled."

They dropped cookies onto two cookie sheets and he put the first in the oven and turned on the timer. "Now what?" he asked.

"Yeah, that didn't take quite as long as I'd hoped," she said.

He bent over and took out a glass cake pan. "Wanna help me make tomorrow morning's casserole?"

"Isn't that supposed to be a surprise?" Polly asked.

"Nah, not this part."

"You mean there's more?"

He winked at her and opened the refrigerator again, handing her two more sticks of butter and a second container of eggs. "It's Mother's Day. Heath and I haven't had a chance to do this in years." He went back in after sausage, green peppers and onions. Putting those on a cutting board, he reached over and drew her into a hug. "You have no idea how much we appreciate you."

"I wasn't expecting anything," Polly said.

"That’s why it's fun. You wanna crack the eggs?" He put a large mixing bowl in front of her.

Polly opened twelve eggs into the bowl and, after finding the whisk, whipped them together.

"Did Marie talk to you and Henry?" Hayden asked.

"About what?"

"About me and Heath working on the house."

Polly remembered the conversation with Henry, but it felt like such a long time ago. This week had really been tough. She hadn't spent much time at all in the interior of the Bell House. Was it really just last Monday that she'd fallen down into that room?

"Polly?"

"Sorry," she said. "Yeah. Marie talked to us. It's a good idea, but unless you two want to camp all summer, I think you should live here. We have rooms available in the addition or you can sleep in Heath's room."

"Maybe we stay here until water and electricity are fixed in part of the house."

She grinned and took the chopped vegetables from him. "Kitchen first?"

"Of course."

"I still can't believe you enjoy cooking so much. Did your mother teach you?"

"It was actually Dad. Mom didn't like to cook. She did it when she had to and she really liked to bake, but Dad was the creative one in the kitchen. He made all sorts of things. One of these days I'll make his double crust breakfast pizza for you. One piece and you're stuffed." He gave her a wistful smile. "One time a bunch of us ended up at the house after a game. Dad said he'd make breakfast and started building this monstrosity. He challenged the guys, telling them that no one could eat more than two pieces. They were absolutely miserable trying to get through that third piece of pizza."

"Really?"

"It was his homemade pizza dough on the top and the bottom of the pizza. He filled the insides with
so
much. Mom and I just watched it happen. No one ever went hungry at our house."

The oven timer rang and Hayden took the cookies out while Polly bent over and brought out the cooling racks. He slid the next cookie sheet into the oven and reset the timer.

"Can I have a warm cookie?" Andrew asked, coming over to the kitchen. He slid a stool out and sat down on it. Polly realized that he wasn't jumping up to sit any longer. The boy was growing like a weed. He'd be as tall as Jason soon.

"Sure," she said. "Jason? Heath? Come on over. We have cookies."

The two boys stopped playing their video game and came over to join them. Kayla was in the living room and Polly pointed that way for Jason to go get her.

"Hayden," she said, pointing at the refrigerator. "Could you get the milk out?"

He nodded, took it out and after handing it to her, opened the cupboard for glasses.

"Are you going to get Rebecca a phone now?" Andrew asked, taking the glass she handed to him. "Mom said I can't have one until she does because it wouldn't be fair, but Jason got his when he turned thirteen and I did that weeks ago."

Polly hadn't intended for Rebecca to have a phone until high school, but this changed everything. It infuriated her that she was about to react to a crisis, but there was no way she wanted Rebecca to ever be out of touch with her again. She hated having outside forces interfere with the things she believed to be right.

"I need to talk to Henry and your mom," Polly said. "But you're right. It isn't the worst idea in light of what happened today."

Henry stepped into the dining room. "A phone?" he asked.

Polly nodded up at him.

"I'm all for it. Especially when she..." He stopped and looked at the boys in front of him. "Nope. I won't ruin the surprise."

Andrew jumped right on it. "What surprise? Her birthday present?"

"That's right and you aren't talking us into telling you what it is," Polly said. She slipped the rest of the cookies off onto the cooling rack and moved around Hayden to leave the kitchen. "Can you handle this?" she asked, handing him the spatula.

"No problem." He passed it to Heath. "You're in charge of the cookies."

Polly took Henry's arm and walked him toward his office. "Do I change my mind now about a cell phone?"

"It's not a bad idea." He bit his lower lip. "I want her to always be able to reach us."

"Me too. Andrew says Sylvie wouldn't let him have one because I wouldn't let Rebecca. I should probably talk to her before we say anything." Polly glanced over her shoulder at the kids hanging out in the kitchen. "Hayden asked about living at the house this summer. You need to settle the numbers with him so he isn't worried about getting a summer job."

Henry nodded. "Not tonight, though, okay?"

"I know. Not tonight. But at least talk to him before he heads back to school on Monday. He's only got a week left. He's been patient enough."

Henry frowned. "I've already talked to him about working for me. That's settled. He knows I'll take care of him."

"Then he was probably just asking whether or not we'd let him and Heath live over there while they worked on the place." Polly reached out to touch him and he pulled away.

"No." Henry said. "It's too dangerous. They can sleep here."

She looked into his eyes and saw that his fear was hurtling toward anger. "Okay. No worries. They stay here."

Henry looked at his watch and then up to the clock on the wall. "How long is this going to take?"

"I don't know."

Both of them jumped at a knock on their front door. Henry took Polly's hand and ran to the living room, only to sag when Sylvie came in. He turned away and walked into their bedroom; Polly watching with worry.

"How are you doing?" Sylvie asked.

"Worried. Jittery. Freaked out. Pick a description like that," Polly said.

She looked around. "I thought there would be more people here."

"They went home. We aren't much company."

"That's not what we're here for." Sylvie took Polly's arm. "Henry?"

"I don't know. I'm worried about him. Is everything over downstairs?"

"All closed down. Eliseo was putting the last of the tables away when I came up. He's pretty worried about you all."

"Tell him to come on up and wait with us. He's family. He should be here."

While Sylvie composed the text, Polly said, "Henry and I are getting Rebecca a phone now. Neither of us want her to be without one. Andrew said you were making him wait because I wouldn't let her have one."

Sylvie chuckled. "The last thing I wanted to do was stir up more trouble with you and Rebecca about that and Andrew doesn't care." She leaned to see into the kitchen. "Jason really wanted one. He was so ready to grow up."

"Do you have a free afternoon this week?" Polly asked. "Maybe the four of us could go to Boone. We'll get phones, go to the bookstore and do dinner."

"The two of them picking out phones together? That will be entertaining."

Henry came out, walked past Polly and into the dining room. "Obiwan. Han. Let's go outside," he snapped.

The two dogs ran to his side and he headed for the back door. Polly turned to his mother, who stood up and came over to join them.

"He's not handling this very well, is he," Marie said.

"I suppose he's handling it better than some," Polly said. "But this isn't like him. I don't know what to do."

Marie took Polly and Sylvie's arms and led them into the dining room, then pointed at two chairs. "Sit. Let me get you something to drink."

Lydia had followed them out and looked at the activity in the kitchen. "Cookies? That's a good idea." She wandered over to the peninsula and sidled up between Jason and Kayla. "Got some for an old lady?"

"You aren't old," Kayla said. "You're pretty."

"Thank you, sweetie," Lydia said. "Hayden, be a dear and hand me a plate. I need to rescue some of these cookies before y'all eat them up."

Han bounded through the rooms, followed closely by Obiwan. They stopped in front of Polly and she reached down to give them each a snuggle. "Where's Henry?" she asked, then looked up as she heard his footsteps.

"Have you heard anything yet?" he demanded.

Polly stepped back at the fury in his tone and in his face. "Not yet."

"I can't just sit here and wait for her to be returned to us. We have to do something."

The decibel level in his voice grew with every word, causing everyone in the apartment to stop what they were doing and stare at him.

"Stop staring at me," he roared. "We should be doing something. This monster has my daughter and you all expect me to sit here and wait for someone else to rescue her. How am I supposed to do that?"